By way of background, on-line presentations in an information processing environment include such items as product demonstrations, tutorials, and other programs in which a computer display is used to present information. The development of an on-line presentation includes two separate tasks. The first task involves defining the content of the presentation, i.e., the text, illustrations, structure, sounds, and operator interaction. The second task involves writing the computer code required to implement the presentation as previously defined. Heretofore, a separate unit of code must be written for each section of an on-line presentation. Accordingly, whenever one was creating an on-line presentation, one was limited to the text, illustrations, and structure for which computer code had been specifically written. If one wished to deviate from the text or illustrations or structure provided by the information processing system, then one was required to write a separate piece of dedicated code to accomplish the change. A consequence of this fact is that a skilled programmer was required each time any non-standard presentation was required in order to write the code demanded by the format of the presentation. One who was not a skilled programmer was not ordinarily able to perform this task.
It would be most desirable to provide a method for creating on-line presentations whereby the need for separate specialized implementations in the form of computer code for each on-line presentation would be substantially eliminated. Attendant with this would be the elimination of the requirement to have a skilled programmer in order to create any non-standard on-line presentation. In addition to reducing the complexity of creating an on-line presentation, it would also be very desirable to quickly display an on-line presentation while it is being created.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,576 discloses a report preparation system for use in a digital signal processor for assembling multiple report definition instructions in order to create a shell document. The shell document is used to generate a file report. The system of this invention enables an operator of the system to depress a key to call up an instruction menu and select for display the report definition instruction menu. The operator then chooses in any desired order the required report instructions, and then the system inserts chosen instructions in proper order to build the shell document. The resulting shell document is stored in machine dependent language in order to enable the document to be redisplayed in operator dependent language as determined by the program which is loaded into the processor of the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,777 discloses a method for assisting an operator of an interactive text processing system in entering instructional data. Such instructional data defines to the text processing system changes to stored spatially related data. According to the method, the operator identifies to the system the task to be accomplished and also the name and location of the source file in the system. The system displays to the operator on the screen of the display, the header portion of the file which defines the fields or column names. Further, the system converts sequences of operator keystrokes which represent conventional text editing operations on selected fields of the displayed header to instructions for use by the system in processing records of the file.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,515 discloses a word processing system with footnote assembly management. The system includes the ability to manage assembly and formatting of footnotes and body text. After the preparation and separate storage of both the body and footnote text, assembly of the footnote text with the body text is accomplished for a review of the appearance of the text document in the format in which it is to be printed. The system and method thereof provide two techniques to an operator for providing optimum performance. The selection of the two techniques is determined by the amount of footnote text being assembled and/or the body and footnote text edited.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 10, March, 1982, pages 5191-5192, "Hybrid Man-Machine Interface" by H. Kasuga, discloses an interface which allows any user to operate a workstation, such as a word processor, by providing a system driven interface on top of a user driven interface. The interface disclosed is usable by a skilled or an unskilled user. The system driven interface is used by the unskilled user in order to determine which keys must be depressed in order to perform a desired function. The user driven interface is used by a skilled user in order to perform a desired function through a sequence of keystrokes.
In addition to lessening the requirements for dedicated programming support during the creation of an on-line presentation, it would be also desirable to separate the data forming the presentation from the control information used to assemble and present the on-line presentation. A result of this separation would be to make easier the task of translating a presentation from one language to another, such as from English to French. This task would be made easier because there would be no need to recompile the source code control command data during the translation process.